Mudassar and Mac working

Finding the Energy Content of Substances

by, Nathaniel Bear, Mudassar Sandozi, and Macneal Stringer

ABSTRACT

HEAT CAPACITY LAB, NATHANIEL

In this experiment, the MNM lab group worked to find the heat content of certain substances. The lab group attained their data by recording how much heat different substances gave off. The group did this by measuring how many degrees a certain amount of water was raised when it was being heating by the ignition of the given substance. This worked because the heat given off from the flame of the ignited substance heated the water so we could calculate the heat change of the substance The one piece of data that was surprising was the change in heat of the wooden splints. This was surprising because when a person burns wood, it gives off a good amount of heat. This information can be used innumerous ways. It can be used to determine the effectiveness of alternate fuel options and it could be useful for camping. Scientists should follow up on this experiment because it would be useful to know if an easily reproducible item can be turned into fuel.
Keywords: Heat change, Peanut, Paper, Fire, Candle, Wooden splints

DATA

Experiment Table 1

	Mass of Water	Mass of Substance lost	Change of Temperature	Change of Heat
Candle Experiment 1	110.78 G	0.19 G	10.2 degrees Celsius	25.0 KJ/G
Candle Experiment 2	130.49 G	0.22 G	10.4 degrees Celsius	25.8 KJ/G
Wooden Splints Experiment	160.67 G	0.18 G	1.9 degrees Celsius	0.121 KJ/G
Paper Experiment	129.41 G	3.2 G	17.9 degrees Celsius	9.68 KJ/G
Peanut Experiment	121.86 G	0.2 G	3.6 degrees Celsius	1.83 KJ/G

ARTICLE SUMMARY Marshall Brain, a correspondent to the science forum, How Stuff Works. published an article about the engines of electric cars on howstuffworks.com. This article, Brain describes how the engine of an electric car functions without the internal combustion process, gas powered cars use. The article also explains how an electric car works by dissecting the inner-workings of the car. This article related to our experiment because of the different means of energy being used to power everyday objects. Through this article, the potential of using the stored energy in a peanut (or other objects that we burnt) becomes a reality. The global gas crisis will bring in a new wave of thinkers and inventors and the use of my lab group's data from our experiment will be crucial to technogical advancement.

Video

This is a video of our second candle experiment. I would have more videos but the file sizes were too big.

Finding the Energy Content of Substances in 3D